Inner Truth with David Newell

Richard Haight is an instructor of meditation, healing, and martial arts, and the author of The Unbound Soul, described by BookAuthority as "One of the best Consciousness books of all time."

He began his path of awakening at age eight when he made a solemn promise in a vision to dedicate his life to enlightenment and to share what he found with the world. He took his first steps towards that promise at age 12 when he began formal martial arts training.

At the age of 24, Richard moved to Japan to advance his training with masters of the sword, staff, and jujutsu. During his 15 years living in Japan, Richard was awarded masters licenses in four samurai arts as well as a traditional healing art called Sotai-ho.

Throughout his life, Richard has had a series of profound visions that have ultimately guided him to the realization of the Oneness that the ancient spiritual teachers often spoke of. This understanding ultimately transformed the arts that he teaches and has resulted in the writing of The Unbound Soul.

Through his book, his meditation and martial arts seminar, Richard is helping to ignite a worldwide spiritual awakening that is free of all constraints and open to anyone of any level.

Did you know the average person looks at their phone 150 times a day?

That's once every 6 minutes (yes, you're probably the same...).

If you did anything more frequently than that apart from breathing and blinking you would probably be classified a certified addict.

So how have these little black mirrors become android cocaine?

The answer lies at the cross-road between the fundamental human need for communion, and tech's 21st century trojan horse of connection.

Somewhere between Hinge, Insta and Candy Crush our monkey brains got duped.

Throw in dopamine buttons, virtue signals, and free stash for influencers, and you've also got a formula for ego-provocation like nothing before.

This week's convo talks all about about what your relationship with your phone says about you as a person, how to become conscious of your usage and how to use your phone in a way that reflects your values.

I spoke about my compulsive need to check the time all the time (wtf is that all about?) and how making my phone boring still hasn't broken the addiction.

Joining me is renowned psychotherapist, author, and international speaker Nancy Colier who wrote The Power of Off, a guide back to authentic relating.

Martin W. Ball, Ph.D. is the author of over 20 books on entheogens and their transformative experiences. Few people have spent more time learning about and experimenting with 5-MeO-DMT as he has.

His books have become somewhat legendary reading in psychedelic subculture, revered for their depth of insight into these transformative substances as well as for their wonderful lucidity.

In this week's interview - Martin's first of 2019 - we spoke about his journey from a relatively obscure, unhappy suburban lifestyle, into an entheogenic odyssey of 50+ 5-MeO sessions and the profound spiritual awakening he has had along the way.

I asked him about some of the challenges of returning to the real-world following these experiences as well as how you can expect them to shape your life and perspective over time for the better.

We spoke about whether anyone or everyone should explore these experiences and left an open thread for you to contemplate for yourself.

Wonderfully articulate and measured, if you're interested in learning more about psychedelics, this is a convo for you.

Enjoy!

Last month as part of my semi-annual tradition of launching myself into a self-discovery escapade of some kind, I set off to the Basque Country for a 12-day Vision Quest in the Spanish mountains.

Vision Quest is an old shamanic rite of passage that typically takes the subject off into the wilderness for a week with no food, no company, and no distractions. Once there, participants are encouraged to still their minds, become one with nature, and gain access to their wisdom mind for guidance on their true direction and purpose in life.

The experience is usually capped with a final initiation through a series of plant medicine ceremonies to learn from the plants and integrate insights from the mountain.

It was probably one of the best self-discovery I've ever been through. The combination of solitude, nature, fasting, shamanic teachings and plant ceremonies was a powerful formula for finding my centre, uncovering powerful personal insights, and opening up some exciting avenues ahead.

In this week's convo I'm joined by my dear friend Brian who came on the retreat last minute and as a virgin to such experiences. We talk about why we went, what it was like, what we got out of it, and why it could be a great experience for you too.

As always, there's no shortage of bizarre tales from the trip!

You'll find it in all the usual haunts online.

Enjoy!

Maura James McNamara is a filmmaker, writer, and visual artist devoted to exploring the healing, expansion, and sovereignty of consciousness. She is the host and producer of the Unbroken Chain Podcast, where she seeks out voices often overlooked or suppressed by the mainstream and whose lived experiences reveal ways of being that might take us out of collective trauma and toward reconnection. After spending a decade working in independent documentary and television production in New York City, Maura became a full-time nomad in spring 2019, traveling the country and living alongside the people who are her subjects and teachers. She is currently in post-production on a documentary she shot while seeking out medicine women and transforming a broken heart in 2018, and she is beginning production on a documentary about survivors of the American machine in the rural south and the pulse of trauma and underground healing taking place in response. In this episode we talk about our personal experiences smoking the toad medicine - bufo alvarius or 5-MEO-DMT - discussing our individual motivations, the experience, whether we're living in the matrix, and integration back into life afterwards. If you're curious or considering the toad medicine yourself, this is a great conversation for an inside look on a decidedly mystical experience! You can find stories and short films from her travels at MauraJames.com or on instagram @MauraJames.

Biet Simkin is truly a remarkable human being.

Raised by an awakened shaman to meditate as a toddler. Signed to Sony Records at the age of nineteen, she lived the rock 'n' roll glam life in New York City for years, until she finally fell to pieces as a heroin addict.

In rapid succession, a near death experience, the tragic deaths of her infant child and father, as well as a fire that burnt down her home, propelled her to sober up. As she moved from meltdowns to miracles, she began to teach meditation to private clients, eventually founding her own meditation system.

Described as the "David Bowie of Meditation" and featured in FORBES, ELLE, Harper's Bazaar, TIME & The New York Times, she is now one of the most prominent of the new wave of spiritual teachers in America.

In this week's conversation we talk about how she forged the spiritual philosophy she has today and how it encapsulates the 44 laws she writes about in her best-selling book Don't Just Sit There.

We spoke about the intersection of art, beauty, mysticism and spirituality, and her future plans to create transformational art to facilitate the global rise in consciousness.

You can keep in touch with Biet via her website and Instagram.

Enjoy!

Kute Blackson is the author of the national bestselling book You.Are.The.One. and is widely considered the next generation leader in the field of personal development by everyone ranging from Larry King, Jack Canfield, Marianne Williamson and more. He has been featured on Larry King Now, Fox and Friends, Dr. Drew and Inc magazine calls him 'The Mindfulness Guru Billionaires Go To For Advice'.

His mission is simple: To awaken and inspire people across the planet to access inner freedom, live authentically and fulfil their true life's purpose.

An electric presence, in this conversation we touch upon everything from the things that block us from pursuing our dreams to the things that build us up in times of need.

This is probably one of my favourite interviews of 2019. I got quite emotional towards the end listening to Kute's strong call for everyone to follow their dreams. Enjoy!

Alyson Charles aka the RockStar Shaman went from being a national champion athlete, #1-rated radio host and national daytime television talk show host to aligning with her calling as a mystic and shamanic practitioner after a traumatic moment provided her awakening. She is now an internationally renowned television host, speaker, shaman, and spiritual awakener.

Alyson has dedicated her life to spiritual initiations, immersions and teachings, activating prophecies such as the Rainbow Warrior Prophecy, and preserving ancient wisdom practices and indigenous traditions. She works with various non-profits such as ANIWA, whose entire purpose is to honor the sacred truths of our planet and preserve the cultures and rituals that unite humans more deeply with our planet and the power within.

In this episode we talk about her path of radical awakening as a shaman and where her gifts have led her to since that fateful day. We speak in depth about her gifts and in particular ability to commune with animal spirits. The conversation unfolded a reading for myself which proved to be a highly profound moment on the podcast for myself.

You can learn more about Alyson on her website, Instagram, and sign up for her new program teaching about spirit animals.

Carolyn Cowan is a London-based psychosexual and relationship therapist specialising in couples, pre & post natal, addiction, trauma recovery.

She runs workshops in various subjects in the UK and abroad and is also a Kundalini Yoga teacher and Teacher Trainer. In 2019, she was named among the top 16 yoga teachers in London.

In her mid-late 20s Carolyn became addicted to alcohol and drugs. During the summer of 1991, while in Dublin to do David Bowie's makeup for a video, Cowan said her life changed dramatically. "David Bowie took one look at me, hung-over, red-eyed and incoherent, and told me I was in trouble. Cowan said Bowie encouraged her to stay sober and attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. By 31 July 1991, she had given up smoking, drugs and alcohol and changed her line of work and focused on photography.

As of this podcast, she is 28 years sober.

Carolyn's professional life is now largely focused on her work as a psychosexual and relationship therapist. She works in all manners of addictive behaviours and sexual dysfunction.

In this episode we talk about the addictive nature of the mind and how to break the habits that cause us

Carolyn has been featured in a number of popular magazines and news outlets including The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Psychologies, Women's Health, The Sun (United Kingdom), i news, Natural Health Magazine, and Woman's Own.

Michelle is a speaker, psychotherapist, podcaster, author and educator. Host of the incredibly popular Adult Chair podcast, over the past 20 years of practice she has crafted a psychological model for approaching the way we interact with the world that that can help you fight the limiting beliefs and the blocks in the middle of your road.

In this episode Michelle explains the Adult Chair, a model that is a psychological understanding of our three primary selves, the inner child, the adolescent, and the adult. The goal of the Adult Chair approach is to lead you to a place of self-love, emotional balance, and self realisation.